Tuesday January 30th
We spent most of the day at the Tuzi Gazi Quay, chatting to the locals that came down to see the boat while we waited for high tide at 6 o’clock that evening.
When high tide finally came we cast off and motored around Naval island to the Zululand yacht club.
Wednesday January 31st
The next day we had to go to town to get some fresh food. The night before the locals had been telling us about the hazards of South Africa (apparently the ‘taxi wars’ could be quite violent at times) They themselves ordered all their food into the yacht club and tried not to leave it when they could avoid it. With occasional gunfire during the night lending credibility to their stories, we figured it best to follow their advice and head out early and be off the streets before 4pm.
It was only a 3km walk into town, mostly along a dirt road. Everyone we saw along the way were quite friendly…
The walk back was slower, being greatly laden down with our purchases. We stopped off at Alkandatrand beach, which is a long sandy beach facing out across the Indian Ocean with large breakers and a number of fires along its length. It was very quiet when we were there, and we stopped to eat some of the large sack of biltong we’d purchased in town.
Tuesday February 5th
We got a taxi to the airport where we rented a car.
With neither one of us having a full driver’s licence and both under 25 we were by no means sure how it would go. After asking for the cheapest car they had, there were a few tense minutes while they examined my driver’s licence, before they handed it back along with the car keys.
Our rental car
Wednesday February 6th
We got up early to drive out to the Imfolozi game park which is about an hour’s drive from Richards bay.
A note on driving in South Africa:
In South Africa they have load shedding, where the power is cut to large areas at predetermined times each day. One aspect of this is that all the traffic lights turn into 4 way stops, which can be a challenge when you are not expecting it.
This was the case as we headed north to Imfolozi, but we managed the drive without incident.
At the park we had to book our accommodation for the next couple of nights. We had tried calling a few times but were never able to get through so decided to just show up and see what we could work out. We went to the camp office and it was no problem for them to book us into a safari tent. The challenge was being able to get wifi to run the credit card transaction. We ended up going to the top of the hill above the camp where we were able to get enough reception to pay for our accommodation.
Almost as soon as we entered the game park we saw a herd of Zebras,
followed by some giraffes
and most exciting of all, a whole herd of elephants! One of whom was not altogether pleased with our presence and charged the car.
Over the next two days we headed out at 5 am to explore the park, not returning until 7pm.
Callum next to the black Imfolozi river
There were very few other people around and we were able to see tons of zebras, giraffes, cape buffalo, wildebeast and impala. Along with cheetahs, lions, white rhinos, elephants and a hyena.
Road signs are bit different in the park
Dung beetle hard at work
Elephant tracks on the road
Callum in one of the hides by a waterhole
Cheetahs
The stay at the park was well worthwhile and it was good to get off the boat and explore inland. This was our first time staying off the boat in 6 months, and a full sized, and strangely motionless, bed was a real luxury.
Our bush camp at Imfolozi
We headed back to Richard’s Bay that afternoon and in the evening we took full advantage of our rented car to make two trips to the grocery store, where we resupplied with around 200lbs of food. Having the car was a real help in this as in one trip we could do what would have taken us days by foot.
Saturday February 10
We helped the family in the slip beside us haul their boat out, which turned out to be an interesting experience. Firstly the boat was brought into the travel lift, which had been fastened to a tractor, then lowered into the water. Once the boat was in the lift, divers swam under with lifting straps. The 6.5 ton boat was then lifted by hand with a chain hoist. Once the boat had been raised, the tractor started heaving the whole assembly up the ramp. It belched black smoke, then slowly started shaking and juddering its way up with the boat swinging violently in its cradle. The boat belonged to a South African family who were preparing to sail to panama. They were very enthusiastic, but something had possessed them to buy a balsa cored, fin keeled, flat bottomed, carbon masted downwind race boat. Hopefully all goes well for them… to quote Amandson “…we shall see. We shall see”.
As soon as the there is an opening in the weather we’ll head out for Simon’s Town on the Cpe of Good Hope.